HOPU and Libelium join forces in a new business project

The acquisition is part of Libelium’s growth plan following the venture of a stake by Axon Partners

The United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda was adopted in 2015 with the aim of achieving seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. We are halfway there and, although we are on the right track, we need a big push to meet them.

It is a huge challenge that is going to require great partnerships that will allow us to be faster and more flexible.

With this challenge in mind, Libelium takes another step forward in its corporate strategy. Libelium acquires HOPU, a leading company in the development of Air Quality, Smart Cities and Infrastructure solutions.

This is a milestone in Libelium’s history of which we are extremely proud. Libelium is now a more powerful, agile and solid team with a workforce of more than 80 highly skilled people and a broader product portfolio. Ready for the big push.

The deal is part of the organic and inorganic growth plan that Libelium initiated after Axon Partners took a stake in the company in June 2021.

A great alliance for a great challenge


HOPU has worked with more than 100 cities and customers, and has more than 700 devices deployed in Spain and Europe. They are highly competitive in their sector, which has positioned them as a valuable partner for large companies such as Telefónica, Suez, SICE, Abertis, Cibernos, Signify (Philips), NUNSYS and Televés, among many others.

HOPU has experienced significant growth in recent years. Libelium was not the only investment offer that the company from Murcia had on the table, but the shared values, Libelium’s prominent position in the national and international IoT market and its ambitious corporate structure, with its sights set on the future IPO, were the arguments to choose Libelium’s offer.

Libelium is now stronger and more agile

With this acquisition, Libelium has become stronger. The group will now have three locations, two in Zaragoza (headquarters in the World Trade Center Building and the logistics warehouse in Calle Gutenberg) and one in Ceutí, Murcia. The Smart Cities Business Unit has been created and will be headed by Antonio J. Jara, former CEO of HOPU. This structure lays the organisational foundations for integrating future acquisitions.

In the context of this purchase, Alicia Asín, CEO of Libelium, states that “Libelium sets a great alliance through the acquisition of the Murcian company HOPU and reaches a new business milestone in its growth plan. I feel absolutely identified with HOPU as a company, its leadership style, its organization and its focus on product and service quality.”

For his part, Antonio J. Jara, General Manager of the Smart Cities Business Unit, said that “beyond the fact that Libelium is a benchmark and the high complementarity of both companies, we seek to strengthen a highly segmented market, generate value from Spain and join a business project of growth hand in hand with AXON Partners”.

The people from the different Libelium sites in Murcia and Zaragoza have already held joint work sessions and team building activities to establish new synergies and to build up the union between the two teams.

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The startup HOPU, selected by the 5G Barcelona acceleration program and Wayra (Telefónica)

HOPU offers solutions for sustainable urban design that supports cities in combating climate change through technologies such as IoT and AI.

HOPU, Liip, Ebre Drone and Flash Park have been the four startups selected to participate in the second edition of the ‘5G ScaleUp Program’. Promoted by 5G Barcelona, the initiative is ​​a program of Mobile World Capital Barcelona that works to position Barcelona and Catalonia as an innovative and open environment for the validation and adoption of 5G technologies and applications in a real-life environment, in collaboration with Telefónica and i2Cat. Wayra, Telefónica’s open innovation hub, also participates in this acceleration program.

The chosen projects will participate in this program for four months with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship in the field of 5G technology. They will have access to The Thinx 5G Barcelona laboratory, one of the most advanced and best-equipped 5G environments. In addition, they will receive training in areas such as finance, sales, marketing or investment, as well as expert advice, access to investors, training, networking spaces and visibility within the 5G ecosystem.

HOPU, a startup created in the Region of Murcia in 2013, develops its work in developing a solution for sustainable urban design that supports cities to combat climate change through support for decision-making, responsible investment and action plans based on IoT and AI technology.

The startup pursues the objective of creating Human-Oriented Products, placing people at the epicentre to generate solutions always thought from the user experience and the value that ICTs can offer. At HOPU they define themselves as “passionate about the design of innovative urban solutions” through the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT) and Data Quality. In words of Antonio J. Jara, CEO of HOPU, “our motivation is to engage citizens and city managers to ensure that data is understandable, intuitive and useful for everyone.”

The products offered by the company support any decision for urban planning and digital transformation through data-enabled tools such as dashboards, as well as other tools that support decision-making. In turn, HOPU offer includes a large number of advanced and certified IoT devices that objectively monitor the state of the environment in which people live, measuring air quality, noise and climate. “As a dedicated Smart Cities team, we love mixing data, technology and people to deliver innovative urban tools.” Jara has finished.

Among the criteria used to select the projects, the market potential and the scalability of the solution have been taken into account. Some premises that were also used last year, when the startups participating in the first edition of the program were Mcsystems, Oliver and Lamarclabs.

“From 5G Barcelona and from MWCapital we make a firm commitment to promote entrepreneurship in the field of 5G technology, that is why we offer the winning startups The Thinx 5G Barcelona laboratory, a leading space where they can develop their solutions and contribute to the consolidation of the 5G entrepreneurial ecosystem ”, explains Eduardo Martín, director of the 5G Program at Mobile World Capital Barcelona and CEO of 5G Barcelona.

“From Wayra (Telefónica) we believe that the 5G ScaleUp Program is a great opportunity for startups to test their products with 5G connectivity and scale their solutions with mentors and key partners in the ecosystem that add value and allow them to generate impact ”, comments Marta Antúnez, director of Wayra Barcelona.

About Wayra
Wayra is the entrepreneurship initiative that is part of Telefónica’s Open Innovation program, the most global, technological and connected in the world. It has seven Wayra Hubs, spaces in nine countries in Latin America and Europe through which it invests and supports startups; Wayra X, a digital hub to invest in 100% digital startups; Wayra Builder, a corporate venture builder to create, together with other investors, innovative startups born from internal Telefónica technology projects; and Wayra Next Trend, a window to digital innovation on innovative trends and applications. In addition, through the Wayra Activation Program, it offers entrepreneurs exclusive and free access to new technologies through Telefónica’s own platforms. More than 500 of the participated startups are part of Telefónica’s Open Innovation program and more than 130 are doing business with the company.
More information available at www.wayra.com.

About 5G Barcelona
5G Barcelona is a public-private initiative that works to position Barcelona and Catalonia as an innovative and open environment for the validation and adoption of 5G technologies and applications in a real-life environment.

The initiative will create synergies within the 5G ecosystem and offer an experimental infrastructure to test, prototype and implement new digital solutions. 5G Barcelona wants to stimulate and consolidate existing innovation in Barcelona and Catalonia, help attract foreign investment, promote new technology companies and generate a complete industry around 5G technology.

The initiative is promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona City Council, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, ​​the i2CAT Foundation, CTTC, Atos and the UPC.

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nIoVe (A Novel Adaptive Cybersecurity Framework for the Internet-of-Vehicles)

NIoVe aims to detect cyber-attacks in realtime while simultaneously preventing them

What is nIoVe?

nIoVe is a European project that has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation Programme under grant agreement No 833742. This project is composed of twelve competitive organisations across Europe specialised in different fields such as Industry, Cybersecurity, IoT, Commercialization and software development, to name but a few:

  1. CERTH is a leading Greek European Research in the sector of risk management
  2. UniGe is a top European Switzerland Research centre focused on data analytics and detection techniques, (significant) data handling and visualisation.
  3. RISE is a top European Swedish Research Center with higher expertise in cybersecurity, machine learning, sensors and actuators, communication networks and data analytics to visualisation, interaction design and service development.
  4. TUM is part of a German university at the top level of blockchain verification, cyber-physical system architectures, security of Internet of Things (IoT).
  5. ATHINA is formed by professionals with higher expertise in Industrial Information and Communication Systems, Embedded Systems, Security, Modelling and Automation of Industrial Systems.
  6. NAVYA is a French organisation focus on vehicles manufacturer and provider, fleets of buses.
  7. KENOTOM  is a Greek company focus on ECUs integration.
  8. TPG is a Public Transport Authority located in Switzerland centred on the charge of all aspects of public mobility in Geneva.
  9. ICTL is a legal consulting located in Italy with higher expertise on regulation compliance and certification for CAVs and autonomous vehicles manufacturers and suppliers.
  10. SEEMS is an innovative Greek SME centred on the Internet of Things solutions, employing artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
  11. HOPU is a Spanish SME on the top of Network Protocols, IoT security and Internet of Things solutions.
  12. ARGUS is a well-knowing Cybersecurity Industry of Continental Group focus on vehicle cybersecurity solutions

nIoVe aims to deploy a novel multi-layered interoperable cybersecurity solution for the Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV), with emphasis of the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) ecosystem by employing an advanced cybersecurity system enabling all relevant stakeholders and incident response teams to share cyber threat intelligence, synchronise and coordinate their cybersecurity strategies, response and recovery activities. To achieve that, the project includes a set of services that should be provided and improvement.

nIoVe partners
nIoVe partners

Objective & innovation  of nIoVe

To do so, the project develops a set of in-vehicle and V2X data collectors that will feed nIoVe’s machine learning platform and tools for threat analysis and situational awareness across the IoV ecosystem. Advanced visual and data analytics are further enhanced and adapted to boost cyber-threat detection performance under complex attack scenarios, while IoV stakeholders are jointly engaged in incident response activities through trusted mechanisms. The proposed approach is supported by interoperable data exchange between existing and newly proposed cybersecurity tools. nIoVe solution will be demonstrated and validated in 3 pilots: 

  • Hybrid execution environment
  • Simulated environment
  • Real-world conditions.

Overall, nIoVe ambitiously expects to:

  •  Reduce the attack surface of the overall IoV ecosystem
  • Showcase effective and real-time detection of novel advanced threats and cyber-attacks in IoV ecosystems
  • Reduce the response time substantially and reduce the impact of breaches
  • Drastically contribute to the establishment and sustainable operation of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) stimulating information and knowledge sharing across the IoV ecosystem
  • Paves the way for the next generation robust, scalable and resilient IoV infrastructure. nIoVe draws and builds upon the accumulated experience from its consortium consisted of 12 partners from 6 European countries and Israel, will implement the project, which is organised in 8 work packages and will be completed within 36 months.

Relevant links:

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EDUHACK

EduHack: Innovation and technology for education

Eduhack is an ERASMUS+KA2 project where educational institutions and companies from all over Europe cooperate

 

EduHack aims to develop innovative curricula through innovative educational methods such as hackathons and workshops for schools, institutes and educational centres and using the potential of ICTs.

EduHack aims to work with the potential of innovation as a co-creation process, incorporating this practice into the co-design of the tools for organising Educational Innovation Hackathons. This will be achieved through the establishment of multi-stakeholder Educational Innovation Hubs in each partner country.

The Hubs aim to bring together expertise from local educational fields, innovation centres, universities, industry, local government, information technology, creative people and companies, to name but a few. Work in these Hubs will include local meetings and workshops, plus two intensive short-term international workshops for mutual learning and exchange. Their function is to gather the contributions needed to design the format of the hackathon. Important crucial issues will also be explored that will be “hacked” during four different hackathons that will take place in different partner countries during the course of the project. The Educational Innovation Hackathons take place in Latvia, Estonia, Turkey and Spain and are organised to test and improve the tools and find solutions to problems in education.

Hackathons aim to reach different profiles – technology and design enthusiasts, students, industry professionals, marketing companies, museum/guide workers, software developers, etc. Each hackathon will include a mentoring board that will consist of education experts and education professionals (i.e. teachers, directors).

 

HUBs

The world is changing; why shouldn’t education? To “hack” education, we need to focus on the relevant issues and work collaboratively to achieve the best impact. EduHack adopts radical collaboration as a paradigm to identify important challenges and frame Hackathons’ scope in a win-win game. Hub members are professionals, practitioners and experts who come from different perspectives with various interests. They participate voluntarily and will jointly manage the project’s operations at national level, defining the scope, programme, requirements and success criteria of the Hackathon.

 

Members of the project

  • AHHAA Science Centre – EduHack Coordinator, Hackathon Toolkit Task Leader: AHHAA is the largest science centre in Estonia, focusing on practical science education, playful learning and interactive exhibitions.
  • Hugin & Munin – EduHack Communication Management:  H&M  is a creative communication agency based in Madrid, Spain, formed by a multidisciplinary team specializing in bold and daring solutions.
  • Dublin City University – Organiser of the outreach event:  DCU, based in Ireland, has been placed among the top 50 young universities in the world. EduHack’s activities are joined by the Department of Education, Innovation and Global Studies of DCU’s STEM School.
  • Tekkeköy MEM – EduHack Monitoring Task Leader: Tekkeköy MEM is a provincial national education coordinator in Turkey, responsible for implementing all educational activities, including formal and informal education in the Tekkeköy region.
  • ZINOO Science Centre – The leader of creating the pilot Hackathon: ZINOO is a science centre in Latvia with a mission to awaken people’s curiosity and encourage them to discover things for themselves.
  • Ergon – Coordinator of EduHack’s educational innovation hub: Ergon is a private provider of vocational education and training in Italy, providing 60 thousand hours of training per year. Ergon specialises in business networking, public-private-citizen partnerships and participatory design and tools.

HOPU on EduHack

HOPU is responsible for launching and managing the project’s online platform. HOPU has a long experience working on international projects focused on creating agile communication channels, serious games and new media contents that make citizen participation evolve using different devices and tools. HOPU has developed different solutions based on the needs of citizens and visitors. The HOPU team includes experts in communication and creativity and specialists in software and hardware development. All other partners are actively involved in the action (giving input and suggestions on visual aspect and functionality).

To ensure the continuation of the efforts made during the project, an online platform is necessary. The idea is not just to build a website, but to provide a more sustainable, user-friendly and interactive tool that offers the possibility of collaboration and has more opportunities than a normal website. The online platform itself is intended to be the main source of information about the project, the guidelines for organising a hacker marathon, all the hacker marathons’ results, and being the tool for collaboration on an international level.

The platform also provides the opportunity to monitor the process of organising hackathons worldwide and create connections between them. This tool not only provides support on how to create educational activities and organise a hackathon, but it will also give access to various products/services (toolkits) that have been created during this project. This means that if during an educational hackathon in Estonia a service or product is developed, all network members can test the product, service, or idea in their country. Cooperation through the platform is based on mutual interest.

 

For more information about the project:

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ODALA: a new initiative of the European Commission to promote Artificial Intelligence and Big Data

HOPU AND THE TOWN OF CARTAGENA AS SPANISH MEMBERS IN ODALA, THE NEW EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR SMART CITIES

 

WHAT IS ODALA

ODALA is an initiative that aims to promote the use of Big Data to facilitate and speed up decision-making in public administrations. This initiative has a social focus and is designed to help the use of Smart Cities technology simply and practically. In this way, ODALA seeks to facilitate the implementation of data-based tools in European public administrations.

This initiative is contextualized within the framework of Smart Cities, a sector in a continuous process of innovation and growth, which is focusing on the use of data as a source of knowledge for citizens, which allows them to improve their quality of life and anticipate future challenges.

Odala is an initiative promoted by town halls, companies and organizations of the European Union as a strategic project to improve data management in cities. Its mission is to create a large data market formed by a data lake, which will serve as an open-source of information, where any administration will be able to dump its data sources on air quality, public transport management, smart parking, statistics, local economy, among others.

With this horizon, the ODALA project “Collaborative, Secure, and Replicable Open Source Data Lakes for Smart Cities” was born, co-financed by the European Commission with a budget of 2,3 million euros until 2022.

 

OBJECTIVES OF ODALA

The strategic objective of the ODALA project is to improve data management in cities, taking advantage of open source technologies and digital transformation for the benefit of people and local public administration, creating an interconnectable data lake within the European Union, that will serve to create better public services and improve the urban quality of cities based on evidence.

“ODALA will allow public administration, companies and universities to connect various data sources, both historical and in real-time, to join forces, thus improving urban health and development opportunities.” Andrea Gómez, CMO of HOPU

The European Union’s Digital Services Infrastructure (DSI) ‘Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Blocks’ will be used to connect these data lakes, a tool developed by the European Commission to enhance the EU’s single digital market, providing infrastructure and cross-border digital services.

For the creation of this extensive Data Lake, entities and organizations will be able to share their data safely and reliably through the CEF Context Broker, essential to establish this European space with open standards (NGSI-LD).

 

ODALA PROMOTERS

The ODALA project brings together a total of 15 partners from Belgium, Germany, Finland, France and Spain such as the cities of Heidelberg (Germany), Saint-Quentin (France), companies as Sirus (Belgium), Contrasec (Finland) and organizations such as the FIWARE Foundation (Germany), among others. Spanish participation in the project is represented by HOPU and the Town of Cartagena, both from the Region of Murcia, thus contributing the experience carried out in the development of the potential of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to contribute to the urban environment and bring cities to their smartest version.

FIWARE’s participation in ODALA as an open-source platform is essential to guarantee that the data model is accessible and standardized, integrable in the management of Smart Cities.

 

HOPU IN ODALA

The collaboration of HOPU and the Cartagena City Council towards a Smart City model based on FIWARE technology has promoted Spanish participation in the ODALA project. HOPU recently received the Le Monde 2020 Urban Innovation Award thanks to the work of implementing a technology that allows the collection of a multitude of high-precision data on the environment, such as emissions of gases, particles, heat islands, influx of people, etc. for sustainable management of the municipality. These data allow us to develop a complete picture of the challenges of the city of Cartagena and help urban planners to make informed decisions.

“The launch of ODALA will allow municipalities and international organizations not only to share their data securely but also to gain benefits from the digital transformation that will mean having access to the resulting Big Data of the project. This fact will favour local competitiveness and economy, people’s quality of life and will stimulate the creation of new market niches” Antonio Jara, CEO of HOPU.

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International Fair of Smart Destinations FIDI2020

At the end of November, the first International Fair of Smart Destinations (FIDI) was held, organized by the Cities of the Future Institute, the National Technological University of Buenos Aires and in collaboration with the State Mercantile Society for the Management of Innovation and Tourist Technologies SEGITTUR, dependent on the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. During the 10 days of the fair, more than 200 speakers participated in seminars, conferences, exhibitions and workshops where more than 20,000 online visitors from the entire Smart Cities sector.

HOPU CEO Antonio J. Jara participated on Friday, November 27, in FIWARE AMERICA DAY where he presented the case of success under FIWARE technology in Smart Cities that we have developed in cities such as Madrid, Cartagena, Ceutí, La Palma, Onda, Berenguer , Helsinki (Finland) and Mechelen (Belgium), among others.

 

The HOPU solution exploits FIWARE to the maximum where we contextualize city data such as air quality, mobility, influx and movement of people, noise and others where we create a global vision of the urban health of the city thanks to Intelligence Artificial algorithms and Big Data management.

“We are a company whose mission is to help urban authorities and cities to use the FIWARE platform to understand better what is happening in their city and to help them make decisions through data and evidence, while technology is and more usable by people. We are specialized in the integration of air quality sensors, gases, particles, pollens, sonometry and the influx of people.” Antonio J. Jara

 

SMART TOURIST DESTINATIONS
During FIDI2020, real experiences of Smart Tourist Destinations participated and how introducing innovative elements are serving to bet on inclusive sustainable tourism with the city and the natural environment, and improve the quality of life of local residents.

The DTIs aim to integrate tourism with the daily life of the city in such a way that it does not have a negative impact on the natural environment or the residents. Attracting new businesses, responding to the needs of visitors and contributing to the local wealth and economy.

Data visualization of HOPU
Data visualization of HOPU

 

Among the services offered by HOPU we can find consulting and advising to the administration and companies to detect the needs and challenges they face and that can be solved through the use of new technologies.

We are currently developing the Smart City Master Plan for municipalities such as Las Torres de Cotillas and San Javier, both in the Region of Murcia (Spain). San Javier, as a coastal town on the shores of the Mar Menor, is a highly valued tourist attraction for those seeking pleasant temperatures throughout the year, as well as important musical and cultural events.

Therefore, the development of San Javier as an Smart Tourist Destination is an opportunity to consolidate tourism beyond the summer months, extending the season to 12 months of the year with actions such as a centralized agenda of the different cultural events, a network of webcams that broadcasts the coast of the Mar Menor 24/7 and a WiFi zone on beaches, as well as actions such as promoting existing cultural and tourist resources.

“A Smart City is a sustainable city that allows the residents to have all the benefits of a city but without the associated problems such as pollution, traffic jams, noise, high density of people, etc. A Smart City is one that does not discriminate, offers equality and helps to optimize time and resources” Antonio J. Jara

 

SMART SPOT DEVICES AS ALLIES TO STD
Through our IoT FIWARE ready Smart Spot devices we can offer municipalities detailed information in real time such as AQi to inform visitors and locals of the values ​​of gases and PM particles in the air. These data can contribute to detecting gas emission sources to help make decisions that lead to their mitigation, as well as to value the good air quality of the municipality in its case.

Smart Spot extensions
Smart Spot extensions

 

Using class 2 sound level meters, it will be possible to create a map of the noise in the city to detect the areas with the greatest noise pollution caused by traffic, port activity, leisure areas, events and others that may cause annoyances in the daily life of the city.

The flow of people sensor is a useful tool to know the movements and detect crowds in advance. Through its installation in commercial areas and tourist elements, we can know the number of visitors and the average time of their visit. This information is very useful to know the most visited areas of the city in such a way that decisions can be made such as improving traffic, the need to create tourist attractions in other areas to relieve pressure, etc.

In addition, the Smart Spot can incorporate a Weather Station that offers values ​​such as temperature and humidity, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation, rainfall, evapotranspiration and weather forecast among other values, offering extensive, detailed and local information on the weather in the city.

All these resources unified in a single device allow the administration to know what is happening in their city in real time, offering local values ​​that help them make decisions based on evidence and anticipate possible challenges and problems, thus improving the competitiveness of the municipality giving the necessary passes to move towards a resilient city for the benefit of its citizens.

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Blockchain y cambio climático

Blockchain against climate change

Blockchain also contributes to the European project for an emission-neutral continent by 2050 (EU Green Deal)

European objectives for 2025: The Green Deal

In 2019 the European Commission published the Green Deal, presented by Ursula Von Der Leyen as President. This plan lists 50 concrete actions to combat climate change, a highly relevant objective in the European strategy to achieve a neutral continent by 2050. This pact, known as the “EU Green Deal“, seeks a clean economy with zero emissions and the protection of our natural habitat, thereby contributing to an improvement in public well-being, a business awareness of the environment and making Europe a reference point for action against climate change. 

To achieve this goal, Europe proposes to work on clean energy, sustainable industry, efficient renovation and construction, sustainable mobility, biodiversity, pesticide reduction and an end to pollution. On 27 November 2020, was highlighted the Green Deal for the next five years, and the European Commission presented the six main objectives for this period:

  • Combating climate change to become the first neutral continent
  • An economy that works for people and works to implement social projects and is a boost to prosperity
  • A Europe for the digital age, empowering people and boosting technologies
  • Promoting a European way of life and building an EU of equal opportunities
  • A stronger Europe in the world that is a global leader
  • A boost to democracy, protecting and strengthening it

Blockchain, one of the new players in the fight against climate change

Faced with this situation and these objectives, which involve reducing CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030, the European Commission has estimated that it must invest an additional 230 billion of euros per year and promote public-private partnerships. 

To achieve this objective, Europe must promote innovation and research in the territories, in the business fabric and in industries, which will make it possible to reduce emissions, the risk of natural disasters and the impact of pollution on public health. One of the latest ITU/UN reports details how cutting-edge technologies such as climate monitoring, air quality and water resources, Artificial Intelligence and the Blockchain can contribute to this process of fighting climate change. 

In this report, called “Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change“, the ITU sets up a working group focusing on environmental efficiency for Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies (FG-AI4EE) to study technology standardisation needs to contribute to these goals. This report recognises how Blockchain technology has been one of the great forgotten technologies to date in the fight against climate change and how it can play a crucial role in it through optimised use of resources and innovation, to contribute to this improvement process.

Blockchain is often associated with cryptosystems such as bitcoin, but this innovative technology has much more potential than bitcoin. Its origins date back to 1991 when Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta carried out the first process based on cryptographically protected blockchains. Its media popularity, however, began in 2008, when bitcoin was in the social spotlight, and today its use is mainly based on protecting and securely certifying data traffic, fighting against forgery and data protection. 

This technology focuses on the decentralisation of information from any process, such as banking management or data monitoring from IoT devices. The blockchain is a way of structuring the data, grouping them in blocks or sets adding meta-information related to other previous blocks in the process timeline. In each block it is stored:

  • Number of records in the block and related transactions
  • Information concerning this block
  • Link to the previous and next block
  • A fingerprint of the block

Through cryptographic techniques, these blocks are encrypted and form an encrypted chain of information, and it only can be altered by modifying all the blocks. 

The PwC in “Time for Trust: The trillion-dollar reasons to rethink blockchain” predicted that the blockchain has great potential to grow world GDP by 1.76 trillion dollars in 2030.

3 Blockchain projects to combat climate change

HOPU: This Spanish SME, dedicated to the monitoring and display of air quality data through IoT devices, is implementing the use of the blockchain for the certification of data quality and the protection of measurements in the different monitored environments. In particular, HOPU is implementing the blockchain for air quality monitoring in industry, where exists strict restrictions to protect workers’ health and the air quality of the areas surrounding these factories. The funds of this solution are through the Blockchers program, a project to promote the use of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technologies) in European SMEs. HOPU is already running its first pilot in the industry, in the Lisanplast plastics factory, which aims to ensure that the working environment is suitable for employees and to reduce the impact of this company on the ground, under the European Green Deal. HOPU is using the Besu Alastria B, which is regulated and compatible with the European network. Through this network, HOPU verifies compliance with regulations in the workspace, provides a calculation of total emissions and all this in an accessible and intuitive interface to access data in real-time and in historical data. 

PlanetWatch:  This French startup is developing a blockchain system to monitor air quality by taking advantage of the potential of communities. According to this SME, efforts to monitor air quality are not sufficient to date and encourage citizens to participate in this process. This project seeks to encourage people to purchase low-cost air quality sensors, install them in their homes, workplaces or even take them with them and record the data in a blockchain. Through this network, Planet Watch will make the open data available to scientists and governments so that they can combat climate change and will reward users for helping in this process. When a user acquires one of its low-cost devices and activates it to monitor data, it acquires Planet Tokens, utility tokens issued in the Algorand blockchain.  These tokens can be exchanged for Earth Credits, which are translated into euros and allow the purchase of new products and services on Planet Watch.

Smart Playground. Safe Environment for Togliatti: This Russian city of more than 700,000 inhabitants has great industrial relevance and therefore requires a relevant environmental control. Togliatti has set up an environmental monitoring network, installed in playgrounds and children’s games as the new generations are a crucial sector to protect in this process. This project has been carried out by the company Airalab using Libelium sensors. In this project, the chain of blocks has been used with the aim of a safe, verified and unalterable storage of the data collected, seeking to ensure that the authorities and citizens receive objective and transparent information, which shows the environmental state of the territory. On the other hand, this project uses the blockchain for its marketplace, which allows anyone to acquire data without intermediation. All you have to do is send a request for information through the available Smart City platform, and an intelligent contract is automatically generated for the specific sensor to carry out the requested measurement and provide the data with its corresponding quality certificate.

 

References:

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Blockchain y cambio climático

El blockchain contra el cambio climático

Blockchain también contribuye en el proyecto Europeo para un continente neutro en emisiones para 2050 (EU Green Deal)

Objetivos Europeos para 2025: El Pacto Verde

En 2019 se publicaba por la Comisión Europea el Pacto Verde, presentado por Ursula Von Der Leyen como presidenta. Este plan enumera 50 acciones concretas para combatir el cambio climático, un objetivo de gran relevancia en la estrategia europea para conseguir un continente neutro en el año 2050. Este pacto, conocido como “EU Green Deal” busca una economía limpia, con cero emisiones y proteger nuestro hábitat natural, contribuyendo con ello a una mejora en el bienestar público, una conciencia empresarial con el medio ambiente y que Europa se transforme en un referente en la acción contra el cambio climático.

Para conseguir el cumplimiento de este objetivo, Europa propone trabajar en una energía limpia, industria sostenible, renovación y construcción eficiente, movilidad sostenible, biodiversidad, reducción de los pesticidas y el fin de la contaminación. Este 27 de noviembre de 2020 se subrayaba esta iniciativa para los próximos 5 años presentándose ante la comisión europea las 6 prioridades que deben abarcar este periodo:

  • Lucha contra el cambio climático con el objetivo de ser el primer continente neutro
  • Una economía que trabaje para las personas y funcione para poner en marcha proyectos sociales y sea un impulso para la prosperidad
  • Una Europa para la era digital, que empodere a las personas e impulse las tecnologías
  • Promover un modo de vida europeo y construir una UE con igualdad de oportunidades
  • Una Europa más fuerte en el mundo que sea un líder global
  • Un impulso a la democracia, protegiéndola y fortaleciéndola

Blockchain, uno de los nuevos protagonistas para combatir el cambio climático

Frente a esta situación y a estos objetivos, que suponen rebajar las emisiones de CO2 en un 50% para 2030, la comisión europea ha calculado que debe invertir 230.000 millones de euros anuales adicionales y promover una colaboración del sector público y privado.

Para abarcar este objetivo, Europa debe potenciar la innovación y la investigación en los territorios, en el tejido empresarial y en las industrias, que permitan reducir las emisiones, el riesgo de desastres naturales y el impacto de la contaminación en la salud pública. Uno de los últimos informes de la ITU/ONU detalla cómo las tecnologías de vanguardia como la monitorización del clima, la calidad del aire y los recursos hídricos, Inteligencia Artificial y el Blockchain pueden contribuir en este proceso de batalla contra el cambio climático.

En este informe, llamado “Frontier Technologies to Protect the Environment and Tackle Climate Change” la ITU crea un grupo de trabajo enfocado en la eficiencia medioambiental para la Inteligencia Artificial y otras tecnologías emergentes (FG-AI4EE) dedicada al estudio de necesidades de normalización de tecnologías para contribuir a estos objetivos. En este informe se reconoce como la tecnología Blockchain ha sido una de las grandes olvidadas hasta la fecha en el camino hacia la lucha contra el cambio climático y cómo esta puede tener un papel clave en él a través de un uso optimizado en cuanto a uso de recursos e innovador, para aportar en este proceso de mejora.

El blockchain se suele asociar con criptomonedas como el bitcoin pero esta tecnología innovadora tiene mucho más potencial que este. Sus orígenes se sitúan en 1991  cuando se realizó el primer proceso basado en cadenas de bloques protegidos criptográficamente por Stuart Haber y W. Scott Stornetta. Su popularidad mediática en cambio empezó en 2008, cuando las criptomonedas estaban en el punto de mira social y actualmente su utilización se basa principalmente para proteger y certificar tránsito de datos de manera oficial y segura, luchando contra la falsificación y la protección de datos.

Esta tecnología se centra en la descentralización de la información de cualquier proceso como puede ser una gestión bancaria o bien una monitorización de datos de dispositivos IoT. El blockchain es una forma de estructurar los datos, agrupándolos en bloques o conjuntos a los que se les añaden metainformaciones relacionadas con otros bloques anteriores en línea temporal relacionados del proceso. En cada bloque se almacena:

  • Cantidad de registros en el bloque y transacciones relacionadas
  • Información referente a ese bloque
  • Vinculación con el bloque anterior y el siguiente
  • Una huella digital del bloque

A través de técnicas criptográficas, estos bloques se cifran y forman una cadena cifrada de información y solo podrían ser alterados modificando todos los bloques.

Se pronostica que el blockchain dispone de un gran potencial para hacer crecer el PIB mundial en 1,76 billones de dólares en 2030 según “Time for Trust: The trillion-dolar reasons to rethink blockchain”, documento de PwC dedicado a esta tecnología.

3 proyectos de Blockchain para combatir el cambio climático

HOPU: Desde esta PYME española, dedicada a la monitorización y visualización de datos de calidad del aire a través de dispositivos IoT, se está implantando el uso del blockchain para la certificación de la calidad de los datos  y la protección de las medidas en los diferentes entornos monitorizados. En concreto, HOPU está implantando el blockchain para la monitorización de la calidad del aire en industria, donde deben cumplirse estrictas regulaciones que protejan la salud de los trabajadores y la calidad del aire de las zonas colindantes a estas fábricas. Gracias a la Blockchers, un proyecto que trabaja promocionando el uso de tecnologías DLT (Distributed Ledger Technologies) en PYMES europeas, HOPU está ya ejecutando su primer piloto en industria, en la fábrica de plásticos Lisanplast, que busca garantizar que el entorno de trabajo sea apto para los empleados y así como reducir el impacto de esta empresa en el entorno, de acuerdo con el Pacto Verde Europeo. HOPU está utilizando la red B Besu Alastria, regulada y compatible con la red europea. De este modo, se verifica el cumplimiento de normativas en el espacio de trabajo, se ofrece un cálculo de las emisiones totales y todo ello en una interfaz accesible e intuitiva para acceder a los datos en tiempo real y en histórico.

PlanetWatch:  Esta startup francesa está desarrollando un sistema blockchain para monitorizar la calidad del aire aprovechando el potencial de las comunidades. Según afirma esta PYME, los esfuerzos en monitorizar la calidad del aire no son suficientes hasta la fecha e incitan a los ciudadanos a ser partícipes en este proceso. Este proyecto se basa en incentivar a las personas a adquirir sensores de calidad del aire de bajo coste, instalarlos en sus hogares, sitios de trabajo o incluso llevarlos consigo y registrar los datos en una cadena blockchain. A través de esta red, PlanetWatch pondrá los datos abiertos a disposición de científicos y gobiernos para que puedan combatir el cambio climático y premiará a los usuarios por ayudar en este proceso. Cuando un usuario adquiere uno de sus dispositivos de bajo coste y lo activa para monitorizar datos adquiere Planet Tokens, fichas de utilidad emitidas en la cadena de bloque de Algorand.  Estos tokens pueden canjearse por Earth Credits, que se traducen a euros y permiten adquirir nuevos productos y servicios en Planet Watch.

“Patio Inteligente. Medioambiente seguro”, proyecto para Toliatti: Esta ciudad rusa de más de 700.000 habitantes tiene una gran relevancia industrial y por lo tanto requiere un gran control medioambiental. Toliatti ha implantado una red de monitorización medioambiental, instalados en zonas de recreo y juegos infantiles ya que las nuevas generaciones son un sector clave a proteger en este proceso. Este proyecto ha sido realizado por la empresa Airalab utilizando los sensores de Libelium. En este proyecto, la cadena de bloques se ha utilizado con el objetivo de un almacenamiento de los datos recogidos seguro, verificado y que no puede alterarse, buscando garantizar que las autoridades y los ciudadanos reciban una información objetiva y transparente, que realmente muestra el estado medioambiental del territorio. Por otro lado, este proyecto usa el blockchain para su marketplace, que permite a cualquier persona adquirir datos sin intermediación. Solo hay que enviar una solicitud de información a través de la plataforma de Smart City disponible y automáticamente se genera un contrato inteligente para que el sensor concreto lleve a cabo la medición solicitada y le facilite los datos con su correspondiente certificado de calidad.

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HOPU participates in the IHIC 12th International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction 2020

 

Our CEO Antonio J. Jara has participated in the IHIC 12th International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction 2020 as an invited speaker where he made a presentation about how our Smart Spot device and industry gas emission monitoring ‘Enabling trust and reliability of IoT-based continuous monitoring by integrating certification via Blockchain’.

The IHCI is the 12th International conference in the Human-Computer Interaction field, where we explore research challenges emerging in the complex interaction between machine intelligence and human intelligence. This is the twelfth event which has a theme on “Intelligent Interaction for Smart Community Services”, having special tracks related to the main theme of the conference.

 

Industry 4.0 & Blockchain

The complete details of past conferences are available on the conference main website. The IHCI Conference presents the best of current HCI research and practice, emphasizing innovation, and quantified experience. IHCI has emerged as the foremost worldwide gathering of academic researchers, Ph.D. and graduate students, top research think tanks and industry technology developers. The complete details are available on the Conference website.

As member of Blockchers, we are implementing blockchain technology in the Spanish company Lisanplast certifying and protecting the data collected by its air quality monitoring devices for use in Industry 4.0. In this way, the industry can verify real-time control of the area to satisfy the regulations regarding the working environment with certified data and justify critical decisions in the environment.

Continuous monitoring of gases emissions in the plastic injection industry is required by environmental law and occupational therapy. Nowadays eventual campaigns are carried out by certification companies and inspections. However, continuous monitoring to detect alarms, anomalies and total emissions are being required. This use case will introduce DLT to the monitoring process to proof data reliability, monitoring equipment calibration-certificates dates, non-repudiable events and data reporting. Antonio J. Jara

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The technology of Smart Cities, allies against Climate Change

Smart City Expo World Congress

On 17th and 18th of November, the “Smart City Expo World Congress” event is being held, instead of being at the Fira de Barcelona, this congress is an online format due to COVID-19 restrictions. Experts in new technologies from all over the world are participating in round-tables and presentations where it is being shown how the implementation of Smart Cities is contributing to the improvement of our community, from the educational field, the management of water resources, improving urban transport and especially in the monitoring of Air Quality to have tools to identify the main sources of pollution and make decisions to solve environmental pollution issues.

IoT Smart Spot, devices as allies against Climate Change

HOPU, as a company specialized in the design of innovative urban solutions through the latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and data quality, has extensive experience in the development of solutions for the administration to know in real time data related to air quality such as gases (CO, O3, NO2, SO2), PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 particles, noise and meteorological values ​​such as temperature and humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, weather forecast, among others.

Our IoT Smart Spot devices are an ally of the administration to fight against Climate Change since it allows to unify in a single device all sensors, customizing their configuration according to specific needs, saving costs and allowing the city to obtain accurate data of the location of the sensor as the overall AQi state of the city.

Smart Spot en Cartagena
Smart Spot device installed in the Port of Cartagena

Smart Spot devices also include sensors and tools that are very useful in Smart City projects, such as monitoring the influx of people in real time through BLE technology, being able to anticipate crowds and obtain data of visits to tourist areas, shopping streets, etc.

Our solution is based on open source software that allows direct integration into Smart platforms such as FIWARE and SENTILO, uniting all verticals in a single management and visualization tool, making it easier for those responsible to obtain a global vision of the city’s Smart project.

Visualization tool: know the state of the city at a glance

Through our visualization tool, the values ​​of gases, PM particles, noise, meteorological and influx of people are shown on a single screen to obtain a complete view of the city, being able to also know the values ​​corresponding to a specific sensor by its location on map.

This visualization service is already offered in municipalities such as Cartagena, La Palma, Mechelen and Helsinki, among others where the population knows in real time factors such as exposure to PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 particles, pollen concentrations, NO2, CO, O3, SO2… and noise levels, among others. Thanks to a traffic light viewer, the population has a tool with which they can easily know, through graphics, the air quality of their municipality as a whole.

The AQi data visualization platform is customizable to consult both through a web page, mobile application, information screens of the city, notifications through telegram and / or whatsapp… facilitating its consultation to the population regardless of their level of use of new technologies.

 

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